Fall to Pieces
by Minako Miharu
Summary: A songfic written for forth's challenge awhile back, Kouga's made a promise to his heart that he intends to keep.


Title: Fall to Pieces  
Genre: Romance/Drama

Rating: General/Mature  
Word Count: 2,085

Warnings: None really, other than songfic ahead.

This was written for the ever lovely forthrightly's Songfic Challenge. Now to be fair I've gotten quite a reputation for just this sort of posting with my AOL RP characters, I've always used quotes and lyrics from songs to create a sort of "soundtrack" to go along with the prose. It seems to add a bit of emotional depth if you can hear the song playing in your head while you read about what's going on.

Disclaimer: Characters are Ms Takahashi's, the lyrics are Velvet Revolver's, and that's that.

Kouga had been there after all when they had finally defeated Naraku, despite having left the group that traveled with InuYasha after the passing on of his two Shards of the Sacred Jewel. They had done nothing but hinder him due to Midoriko's will and nearly cost him his life to the grasping deceit of Naraku's plots. If not for the power of the Goraishi he would have fallen to the will of the dead priestess much to his chagrin, but in the long run it had proven to be to his benefit to finally be rid of the shards. Besides, Kagome needed them and he had long ago told himself that there would be nothing that Kagome needed that he would deny her if it were in his power to give. Yet it had been sheer chance that found him at that battle and able to lend his demonic might to them and despite it all it had been a good thing that he had been there.

He'd smelled that foul miasma on the breeze and followed it, the desire for revenge subsuming his reason for traveling that direction in the first place. He along with Ginta and Hakkaku had been gathering up what survivors that they could of the scattered and decimated Yourouzoku tribes in the hope that they could once more thrive. It had been a heartbreaking task they had set themselves with so many dead and some lost to madness but Kouga would not give up. The wolves deserved to live and if he had to be the one to make this all happen then so be it. Then of course all thoughts of the future were swept away by that stench of miasma and more, for underlying that foulness was a singular sweet scent that he had not encountered in so long yet he had never forgotten it.

After all, he'd made a promise to his heart that he intended to keep in regards to the owner of that scent.

_It's been a long year  
since you've been gone  
I've been alone here  
I've grown old  
I fall to pieces, I'm falling  
Fell to pieces and I'm still falling_

So with no thought of what could happen he charged into that battle and somehow it didn't matter anymore that he no longer had jewel shards in his legs, he was swifter than the wind that seemed to be at his back to urge him on, the pounding of his fur-wrapped feet was as loud in his ears as the rushing of his blood and the pounding of his heart. He had to get there and he had to get there i now /i though he could never have explained in words just why he knew that. His blue eyes were burning with demonic rage as he took on the lesser demons that were stupid enough to get in his way and finally he was close enough to see where Kagome stood in defense of that little fox demon kit that always hung around her. For a split second his mind was taken back to that first time he'd kidnapped her and taken her back to his pack's cave and the fox had clung to his tail the whole way. She'd stood up to him then for the kit's safety and he'd known soon afterwards that he'd never love anyone the way he loved Kagome.

_Every time I'm falling down  
All alone I fall to pieces_

Shippou's yell of fear brought him back to the battle and he dared skirt the wash of power from one of Kagome's fired arrows of purity to dive in front of her and take the razor-tipped tentacle meant to kill her right through the chest. His senses blurred a moment but he was still hyper aware of the girl behind him and he knew he'd saved her. She gave a soft gasp as the tentacle shot back out of him followed by a rush of hottest blood and Kouga scarcely felt himself crash into the ground at her feet. He had been very lucky; while the injury was horrid the thrust had somehow missed his heart and lungs though afterwards he would bear a star shaped scar right over his heart. Yet that was in the future and right now he gasped out what he needed to say, blood flecking his lips though the fierceness of his blue gaze had only magnified as he glared at Naraku.

"I will protect my woman, you hear me you bastard? She's mine and you can't touch her!"

He'd never meant those words more in his life than he did right then, with no thought of what anger they might generate with InuYasha who fought mere yards away from them, and there came a gentle touch of her hands and a wash of her scent as she'd knelt to wrap her arms around him from behind. Her soft whisper of thank you went straight into him like one of her arrows and if he hadn't been in such pain he might have wondered if he had truly felt the brush of her lips to his cheek or smelt the salt of her tears for his wounds. Yet despite the blood that still came from that gaping hole he managed to stand and call forth the Goraishi, and he used the divine power of the weapon of the Yourouzoku ancestors to defeat anything that came near Kagome.

_I keep a journal of memories  
I'm feeling lonely, I can't breathe  
I fall to pieces, I'm falling  
Fell to pieces and I'm still falling_

The end came soon after and while Kouga could never be sure if it had been InuYasha's Tessaiga or Sesshoumaru's Tenseiga combined with Kagome's arrow that brought down Naraku or a combination of all three it was finally done. The threats and ploys that had been born due to Onigumo's desperate bargain with demons were finally stilled and those cursed were free and those left alive were finally able to begin the long process of grieving and healing. But none of them had really expected that the choice of whether to go home or stay in the past would be taken out of Kagome's hands the way it had been. When the Jewel was finally completed she had extended it in her hand to give to InuYasha, her trust of him unwavering despite all that had come before.

But fate had other plans for Kagome. The Sacred Jewel glowed brightly and shot out of her hand and back into her body and she had but a moment to look at all her beloved friends before she had vanished entirely from sight. That last desperate look she had shot him lingered in his mind still after all these years, as if she were begging him to keep her there somehow. Though surely that couldn't be right, because she was supposed to love that idiot InuYasha after all that time together in their quest, yet somehow it had been _his_ eyes that she had sought at the last with her lips parted to tell him something.

He wanted more than life itself to know what it was she had wanted to tell him. So when Shippou wailed his heart out cradled by an astonished Sango while nearby InuYasha and Miroku exchanged bewildered and grief stricken looks Kouga simply made another promise to his heart.

_All the years I've tried  
With more to go  
Will the memories die  
I'm waiting_

It took him several more months to finesse the entire story out of her companions as to where Kagome had gone. More importantly _when_ she had gone that is. There had been roaring blackness in his ears when that monk Miroku finally gave him that last bit of information and the blankness of his look must have disturbed the human male because a slight hint of panic came into his scent then. As if he would ever hurt anyone that his woman had cared about. The thought made him snort now just as it had then, the sound enough to make Miroku relax again. He'd sincerely thanked him before saying his final good-bye to those humans that had been her companions in the past as he doubted that he would ever see them alive again.

He'd have them watched over for Kagome's sake, records kept so that she would know they hadn't forgotten her. But the proud and once cocky Prince of the Yourouzoku withdrew for the most part from the world then, content for a few years to keep watch over his land and the slowly rebuilding Yourouzoku tribe. He knew what he had to do but he also knew that he was taking an immense risk. He could do this and it could all be for nothing. She might reject him, or the Jewel might have simply made her cease to exist. He refused to dwell on it, stubborn as only Kouga could be, and he found the dark priestess that was willing to do as he asked how he asked it because he refused to live without her and he knew that while it was possible for him to live that long that the wait would make him mad.

_Will I find you  
Can I find you  
We're falling down  
I'm falling_

So the Prince of the Yourouzoku slept, Sealed inside a hidden chamber on the grounds of a newly built shrine and who can say what it is that he dreamt while he was Sealed? There had been times when he had nearly woken, when the triggers that would break his Seal were almost aligned. Almost, but not quite what was needed until that singular day in which a flash of pink light lit the inside of a certain old well house, pink instead of the usual blue and as a girl was put down on her feet at the top of the well standing there on the old boards sobbing her eyes out her tears splashed the worn wood, leaving cleaned spots in the dust. She sobbed until her voice was raw and then she finally fell to her knees and cried out the names of those she'd lost to the still air of the confining space and so unaware of the hush, the expectant stillness waiting and then in her broken tones she spoke the final key.

"Kouga, Kouga … I'm so sorry I never told you …"

_Every time I'm falling down  
All alone I fall to pieces_

So wrapped in misery was Kagome that she didn't notice the pale light that had begun to seep up from the floor below her, hunched over with her arms tight around her knees and a hollow look in her blue eyes, until there came the terrible crunch of cracking wood near her and a blur of motion in her peripheral vision. She had drawn breath to scream when the strong arms found their way around her and the sound of his voice came to her ears though it was rough with his wakening still, and she turned in amazement to him unable to believe that he was somehow right there. Her fingers were there to touch his face as her tears slowed and she nestled her tear-wet cheek against the rapidly warming skin of his throat.

"Tell me what, Kagome?"

_Every time I'm falling down  
All alone I fall to pieces_

"Don't leave me! Don't leave me alone! Please, Kouga … I need you. I … need to know you love me …"

He could not have imagined that she would have been like this, so devastated and hurt, and it made him know that all he had given up had been worth it just so that he could be here for her when she needed him most. The emotion welled up in him and he tightened his arms around her and breathed in her scent from her hair. Later he would figure out what they would do, figure out how he would live in this strange world of hers, and find out if the Yourouzoku had even survived into this time. Later. For now he held her and pressed his lips to hers, tasting her sweetness and her tears there before whispering against her skin.

"You are my woman, Kagome. I will always love you."

_Every time I'm falling down  
All alone I fall to pieces  
Every time I'm falling down  
All alone I fall to pieces_


End file.
